[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The United Nations said Friday that 96,000 Somalis had fled fighting in Mogadishu in the last month, while in central Somalia rival Islamist groups fought for a town in battles that killed dozens. Rebels from the militant Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam groups first wrested control of Wabho town from pro-government moderate Islamists Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca in a day of mortar and machine-gun exchanges that sent residents fleeing, witnesses said. "We have pounded mortars on the infidels and entered the town from all sides. Wabho is now under our control," Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Muse Arale told Reuters.
Fighters spoke of dozens of dead, but it was impossible to verify exact numbers. Central towns have been changing hands regularly between militants and moderates in on-off fighting throughout the year.
| Late in the day, Ahla Sunna claimed it had re-taken Wabho, and wounded hardline Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. |
Late in the day, Ahla Sunna claimed it had re-taken Wabho, and wounded hardline Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Leaders on both sides spoke to Reuters by satellite phone, but other lines to the town were cut, so there was no independent verification.
The exodus from Mogadishu since a flare-up in rebel-government fighting in early May has added to the more than 1 million internal refugees in Somalia. Aid agencies say Somalia now has one of the world's worst, and most neglected, humanitarian crises.
| Neglected by whom? The Somalis? |
Three million Somalis need urgent food aid.
A two-year insurgency, the latest manifestation of 19 years of conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, has killed around 18,000 civilians, and unknown numbers of fighters. It has also drawn foreign jihadists into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish offshore, and unsettled the whole region, with East African neighbors on high security alert.
In an update on the flows from Mogadishu, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said about 35,000 of those displaced since the latest flare-up began on May 8 were still in the city, seeking shelter, because they had no means to escape. Another 26,000 had reached makeshift camps in the Afgoye area, about 30 kilometers southeast of Mogadishu. "According to UNHCR's local partners in Somalia, 2,000 people have indicated they plan to cross the border into Kenya. Over a thousand said they are ready to risk their lives and make the perilous journey with smugglers across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen," the agency said. "Some 600 people told our local partners they were heading toward Ethiopia." |